March – One Little Word Update and Lent

I’m entering March in amazement that I don’t have a baby to cuddle yet. I’m at peace though, although I’m ready for this babe to come I’m ok with whenever that is going to happen.

With February gone (and boy did it fly by!) I thought I’d do a bit of an update on my one little word and what I’m doing this month to try and rest. February I tried to incorporate meditation to my daily routine as well as a spending freeze. Neither went perfectly but as I was reflecting I realized that none of this is to achieve perfection, but to gradually better myself. I did meditate over half of the days but never found a perfect routine – I’ll continue to meditate and try to get a routine going that works. Of course with adding a newborn to the mix I’m sure this is going to take a while! The spending freeze also was not a complete success (again) but much better than January – an improvement! More than anything it made me very aware of what I was spending and where it was coming from. My goal this year is to become and stay credit card debt free. In a few days I’ll be able to officially say I have no credit card debt. The trick is to keep it that way. Sounds so simple but with a household on one very small (and about to get a lot smaller) income sometimes there are things that just have to be bought and the only way to do that is with a credit card. The real challenge is deciphering wants vs needs and making sure that if I do need to charge something to the credit card that it is 100% needed.

Now for March.

I thought it was fitting that Lent this year started on March 1. When I realized that I thought I could try and combine both my goal of resting more and of giving something up for Lent. One year for Lent I completely gave up social media. I thought about doing that again this year but then I realized that I wanted to do something that was actually long lasting beyond just Lent. So I came up with limiting my phone time. It’s a conversation I see a lot around social media and amongst my friends – the amount of time spent scrolling and looking through various apps on our phones has gotten out of control. For me it’s really sky rocketed since being home on modified rest. I’m often bored and to try and combat that I just look at my phone. It was getting to the point that I would have to charge my phone twice a day just because I was spending so much time scrolling for no reason. It was distracting me from really engaging with Ezekiel, it was making me procrastinate on things that are actually productive, it was numbing my mind. When I was out standing in lines or waiting for appointments I’d scroll and scroll and scroll. I had stopped engaging with the world around me as I stared at my phone engaging in the cyber world.

As I was thinking about this I tried to come up with something that would be sacrificial, encourage rest and realistic for long term. I don’t want this to just be 40 days and then back to mindlessly scrolling my phone. So I came up with limiting my scrolling to 3-15 minute sessions. The first being after waking up, while drinking my morning coffee (if Ezekiel is still asleep). The important part here is that it is not while I’m laying in bed right after waking up, it’s at least 30 minutes after waking up, giving myself time to think about my day and set my intentions for my day. The second being in the afternoon while Ezekiel is either napping or having his quiet time. The third being after putting Ezekiel to bed but at least 1 hour before going to sleep to ensure that my phone is not the last thing I’m looking at during the day. Notice that all of my designated “scroll” times are when Ezekiel is not around to see it. I don’t want him to grow up thinking that mommies phone is more important than what he is saying or doing.

I’m on day 2 of implementing this and it is actually way easier than I thought it would be and has already had such a positive impact on my day. Yesterday I was at a long appointment that had several minutes of waiting at various points and instead of scrolling my phone I read a book. Then I had several errands to run and while waiting in those lines I looked around and engaged with what was happening. Again, while at home and not doing anything instead of pick up my phone to scroll, I read a book, baked an apple loaf, knitted, made supper. It felt freeing and when I was scrolling it made me more aware of the things I was actually interested in seeing and what is important to me – there were certain people that I’ve been praying for specifically whose updates I wanted to see and so I scrolled quickly through photos and accounts that weren’t important to me to find the ones that were. This was instinctive but was eye opening. Today I am at home doing not much of anything because I am so exhausted from what I did yesterday, it’s a bit harder to not just pick up my phone but again it’s been so rewarding. Right now my phone is still quite close to me at all times because I have to use the contraction counting app on it but that’s the only app I open outside of my designated “scroll” times. I have the sound on in case I have a call or text message (which are NOT off limits during this) and then I mute it overnight.

I’m looking forward to seeing how much more impactful this is going to be in my life!

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My name's Ashley, I'm a wife, momma, and nurse. I'm on a journey to simplify my life so that I can fully enjoy every moment without the distraction of "things". Thanks for stopping by and remember to say hello!